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Early rise again and on the trail by 8:15AM. Restful nights sleep. We met the
first NoBo about 50' from our camp. Dingo said he left the Jenkins Shelter real
early to get ahead of the crowd. Said there were a dozen folks there last night
and he wanted to beat them all to town. The trail was supposed to cross VA 610
then criss-cross Little Wolf Creek for almost five miles, but it has been
relocated. We walked down the road a piece and then went almost straight up on
the old "High Water" detour trail. We went from 2,500' to 3,200' really quick. The
whole day seemed like all we did was walk up hill. We were up on Garden Mountain,
which also divides Tazewell and Bland counties. The day was long with varied
forest. It is strange how the forest in such a small area can change so quickly.
It changes from hardwood to pine as you descend. If there is an abundance of
Water, the Rhododendron thickets spring up. The north side is different than the
south side. All you have to do is round a corner of a ridge and there is something different. We are also starting to see
kudzu vines now.
Up hill and more up hill, CC and I both seemed real tired today. When we got
to Walked Gap we needed to get water. It was 5PM and I had been dry since
3:30PM. Climbing all those hills and the temp on the mid 70s caused me to suck a
lot of water. The maps and guide book we use to find stuff are not up to par
with the military stuff I used long ago. The book said there was a spring at
Walker Gap. The location description was not that helpful; but after about 20
minutes of looking, we found it. We loaded up our drinking bladders and the five
liters of extra water for supper, breakfast, cleanup, and topping off our drinking
water in the morning. We had thought of continuing on to Chestnut Knob shelter
and doing a 14.7 mile day, but were too whipped for that. We decided to head up
hill in the shelters direction and find a tent site along the way. .3 mi up the
hill we found a useable spot on an abandoned jeep road. Not a flat tent site,
but flat enough to sleep on. Managed to get in 13.7 miles today. We felt every inch of it as we ate supper. Since leaving Pearisburg five days ago, we have managed to gain one day on our schedule to Damascus! We will only do 10 miles tomorrow and end up at the Knot Maul Branch Shelter where I had figured we would be day after tomorrow.
Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost
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Tot: 0.188s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.1038s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
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Bethany
non-member comment
Hey guys!! You both are so amazing the ground that you have covered is simply amazing! I'm so happy for you getting to do this awesome adventure together! Keep up with the great detailed stories and the pictures. The kids and I check them out everyday! We had people come and look at our house on Mon.-Memorial Day! It was the Ringers from church. They are moving up here from Buffalo area and they seemed to really like it! So we've been doing lots of praying.It would be so amazing to sell to the first person who looks at it! Chris did such and amazing job this last weekend with all the projects around the house. New countertops,new sink, new kitchen floors, new hardware, new flower bed, put up rock wall for flower bed,new paint on doors, new harware on doors ,new outside lights... He's incredible! You raised an amazing son! Thank you! :o) Hope you have a great week!! Love yas lots!! Be safe!! Love, Bethany :o)